Early Risers.

[TheQ]

Against swamp cooler arrangements, is the fact we are surrounded by marshland or former marshland, trapped between the North sea and the Norfolk broads. We have high humidity anyway before adding more.

It is the humidity that makes it much worse. With recent heavy rain, the sudden change to high temperatures, is drawing this back out of the ground.

I've experienced this in Saudi, a breeze from inland dry air at 50c+ not too much problem, a breeze from the sea, much more common, high humidity, very unpleasant.

Forecast today, southerly 25C, therefore from the " hot direction" .

 

Mooring Awl,

I came down stairs soon after the last posting, coming down the stairs the temperature dropped rapidly.

5.5 hours near solid sleep, which was good.

 

The harvest has started, travelling back from the radar museum yesterday there were patches of grain on the road.

So plans for today include, rat prevention as they will be driven from the fields into our garden.

As it is we discovered on Thursday they'd attacked another shed, and the conservatory door they'd previously got through and I'd repaired.

 

TV forecast has been on, it shows we should avoid the heavy soggy currently   in Gwiwerland    we might get an odd shower.

 

Hmm touched something while typing and the keyboard shrank to half width, it's been difficult to get it back how I want but at least it's useable again.

 

I doubt I'll get it but

time to try for another snooze.

 

 

[TheQ]

Rmweb temporarily unavailable, 

Closed it down restarted.

Works ok.

 

[iL Dottore]

14 hours ago, polybear said:

 

(**If you can call a tin of soup "din dins", that is....)

 

Now that The Bear has decided to join the grown-ups and start baking and proper cooking (how was the homemade LDC by the way?), how about flexing those culinary muscles and make a soup?

 

I’ll give you two very easy cauliflower soup recipes:

 

NUMBER ONE

• One cauliflower, green bits removed and broken into florets
• One medium sized onion, peeled and roughly chopped
• One clove of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped (optional)
• Curry powder (optional). OR
• Chilli powder (optional)
• 1L of water and two good quality chicken or vegetables stock cube
• Knob of butter
• Cream or milk to finish
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. melt butter in a 1.5 L (or greater) pan
2. sauté garlic and onions until soft but not coloured
3. if using add either chilli or curry powder to taste and coat onion and garlic with the spice
4. add cauliflower and stir until coated
5. add water in which you have desolved the stock cubes, stir well
6. bring to a simmer, cover with a lifand ignore for about 30 minutes or until cauliflower is very soft
7. blitz until smooth with either a stick blender or in a heat proof stand blender
8. if using stand blender, return to pan
9. adjust thickness of soup with either cream (reccomended) or full fat milk
10. adjust seasoning and eat

This also works well as a cold soup

 

NUMBER TWO

The VERY easy @polybear version

• One cauliflower, green bits removed and broken into florets
• About1/2 tablespoon each (or to taste) of onion powder, garlic powder, curry powder OR chilli powder
• 1 L water
• Two stock cubes
• Cream or milk to finish
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring water to the boil
2. Chuck in everything
3. lower heat to a simmer
4. cover & let simmer for about 30 minutes or until 
5. blend, add milk or cream, adjust seasoning, eat.

As you would expect I have both a stand blender and a stick blender, but many hand mixers also have a stick blender attachment - and very useful it is too. A hand mixer with a stick blender attachment is a very useful kitchen tool and available quite cheaply.

 

The thing about this sort of soup is not only is it easy to do and quite fast (OK, not as fast as a tin, but miles better), but you can make it as thick or thin as you like (by adding stock or cream to the blended soup), with most any vegetable and as simple as you like (broccoli soup) or as fancy as you like (broccoli and cheddar soup, homemade garlic croutons with slivers of rohschinken).

 

Edited July 20 by iL Dottore
Modified text

[iL Dottore]

19 hours ago, Hroth said:

Weather here is sunny, slightly cloudy and calm.  Two baubles down on the thermometer.

 

A while ago, @iL Dottore was waxing eloquent on the benefits of "sourdough" bread.  Having given the stuff a try, I'd say that the reason you wouldn't want to eat as much of it as conventional bread is that its dense, coarse texture and uninteresting taste is a throwback to the British National Loaf.

 

Back to a conventional wholemeal loaf for me!

A minor correction, my dear fellow. I was waxing eloquent about quality, all natural ingredient bread (homemade or small baker) and the soudough bread referenced to in the Grauniad article was for illustrative purposes only.

 

But I wonder where you got your sourdough bread. The sourdough bread I’ve had has been nothing like what you describe, although my current preference is for volkorn brot or mehrkorn brot (proper wholemeal bread those are, not Chorleywood bread dyed brown)

[polybear]

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Here we have an Antarctic something or other ......but with the wind chill the Feels Like is predicted to be  around 7 or 8.

 

Also, 31 is NOT hot, bear-up to it!

 

7 or 8?  Antarctic??

🤣

 

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Come on Mr Stingy, go for the 34W pair. Sure the power to run them will be slightly more expensive but the extra 2W makes a big difference.

 

I got a shot from your doorbell cam when you tried them on, look ok to me!

 

 

 

Wow, I look even better than I thought!!

 

3 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Then of course there is the 5 gallon bucket DIY swamp cooler (evaporative cooler). 

 

 

When I first started watching that video I thought it was spraying three streams of water out of it....

 

19 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Now that The Bear has decided to join the grown-ups and start baking and proper cooking (how was the homemade LDC by the way?), how about flexing those culinary muscles and make a soup?

 

I’ll give you two very easy cauliflower soup recipes:

 

NUMBER ONE

• One cauliflower, green bits removed and broken into florets
• One medium sized onion, peeled and roughly chopped
• One clove of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped (optional)
• Curry powder (optional). OR
• Chilli powder (optional)
• 1L of water and two good quality chicken or vegetables stock cube
• Knob of butter
• Cream or milk to finish
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. melt butter in a 1.5 L (or greater) pan
2. sauté garlic and onions until soft but not coloured
3. if using add either chilli or curry powder to taste and coat onion and garlic with the spice
4. add cauliflower and stir until coated
5. add water in which you have desolved the stock cubes, stir well
6. bring to a simmer, cover with a lifand ignore for about 30 minutes or until cauliflower is very soft
7. blitz until smooth with either a stick blender or in a heat proof stand blender
8. if using stand blender, return to pan
9. adjust thickness of soup with either cream (reccomended) or full fat milk
10. adjust seasoning and eat

This also works well as a cold soup

 

NUMBER TWO

The VERY easy @polybear version

• One cauliflower, green bits removed and broken into florets
• About1/2 tablespoon each (or to taste) of onion powder, garlic powder, curry powder OR chilli powder
• 1 L water
• Two stock cubes
• Cream or milk to finish
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring water to the boil
2. Chuck in everything
3. lower heat to a simmer
4. cover & let simmer for about 30 minutes or until 
5. blend, add milk or cream, adjust seasoning, eat.

As you would expect I have both a stand blender and a stick blender, but many hand mixers also have a stick blender attachment - and very useful it is too. A hand mixer with a stick blender attachment is a very useful kitchen tool and available quite cheaply.

 

The thing about this sort of soup is not only is it easy to do and quite fast (OK, not as fast as a tin, but miles better), but you can make it as thick or thin as you like (by adding stock or cream to the finished), with most any vegetable and as simple as you like (broccoli soup) or as fancy as you like (broccoli and cheddar soup, homemade garlic croutons with slivers of rohschinken).

 

 

Sadly Bear doesn't possess a Blender.  Saved at the last hurdle.....🤣

 

Beary-made LDC?  The last slice disappeared last night** 😢 - rather good I thought, though a looooong way off true ikky stikky gooey status 😢.  The Mk.2 version will be supercharged........

 

**Though it'll now drop the dreaded daily calorie intake by a quarter or so - Bear has now throttled-up to full-blown Ruthless Bear mode at the moment cos' those last 3 kaygees I'd like to wave bye bye to are being "somewhat un-cooperative" (i.e. they just won't F.O.)

 

ION......

 

Today had better see some G-word at long last - at least during the pre-din dins session, that is.  Poo.

Other than that it's MIUABGAD.

 

And finally...

 

SLVHBBW's to Baz 🍰

 

Right, time to wriggle...

 

BG

[iL Dottore]

All this brouhaha about RMWeb and how it does/does not function (for what it’s worth, I think there are some technical problems lurking somewhere in the background) has had me thinking.

 

As the various permutations of “RMWeb not available“ seemingly happen at random, I was thinking that this would be a good way of choosing numbers for the EuroMillions lottery. The winning numbers are picked at random, and whilst the probability of winning the jackpot is minuscule, it is not impossible.

 

(Now, bear with me for a moment…j

 

Therefore, if we assign a number each of the random “RMWeb not available“ events, every time we try to access Early Risers we make a note of what sort of ”not available” event we encounter. If an event occurs twice in a row, then it would count as a single double digit number (e.g. two number 2 “not available” events = 22) and if you have already encountered that event already (say event number one), the number of that event is simply added to the the number of the next “RMWeb not available” event to creat a two digit number.

 

By the end of a usual day spent accessing RMWeb, and Early Risers in particular, you should have enough randomly generated numbers to complete your EuroMillions entry form.

 

And who knows, you might even win something

[iL Dottore]

6 minutes ago, polybear said:

Sadly Bear doesn't possess a Blender.  Saved at the last hurdle.....🤣

That’s a poor excuse Bear. I mean that’s really a p***-poor excuse. Such things are very inexpensive and very useful.

 

Are you afraid you can’t cut it in the kitchen even with a made-for-bear recipe?. C’mon, it’s hardly in the same league as capturing a Huntsman Spider, is it?

 

I guess The Bear isn’t ready to join the grown-ups yet…

 

Edited July 20 by iL Dottore
Wordng

[polybear]

39 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

A minor correction, my dear fellow. I was waxing eloquent about quality, all natural ingredient bread (homemade or small baker) and the soudough bread referenced to in the Grauniad article was for illustrative purposes only.

 

But I wonder where you got your sourdough bread. The sourdough bread I’ve had has been nothing like what you describe, although my current preference is for volkorn brot or mehrkorn brot (proper wholemeal bread those are, not Chorleywood bread dyed brown)

 

Why is that whenever the words "sourdough" are added then the price of a loaf seems to triple?  Is there some magic, ultra-expensive ingredient?  Or maybe it takes a lot longer/more effort to make?  Or is it simply a marketing rip-off?

[iL Dottore]

12 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Why is that whenever the words "sourdough" are added then the price of a loaf seems to triple?  Is there some magic, ultra-expensive ingredient?  Or maybe it takes a lot longer/more effort to make?  Or is it simply a marketing rip-off?

It takes longer (time = money), has to use quality ingredients (quality = money) and requires more work than the Chorleywood process (labour = money).

 

So, not a marketing rip-off (although I have noticed that The Bear has a very very, low threshold for “rip-off”) no special ingredients either.

 

Problem is, as Britain has become so reliant on UPF (up to 67% of daily calorie intake according to some accounts) many have forgotten - if they ever knew in the first place - the time and cost involved making things from scratch with decent ingredients.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Enjoyed my birthday meal last night.. won't need breakfast!

Apparently I have not a lot to do for the "wedding" today.. excellent!

 

Weather forecast has improved.. no tain until 9pm tonight.. Good.

 

I may even be good and not drink alcohol...

 

Time to rouse myself!

Have a great Saturday!

 

Baz

 

 

[Coombe Barton]

In case you're ordering what the noise was, I've been thinking about what I have to do.

The concept of 'have to get it done by Monday' is no longer valid.

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

As the various permutations of “RMWeb not available“ seemingly happen at random, I was thinking that this would be a good way of choosing numbers for the EuroMillions lottery. The winning numbers are picked at random, and whilst the probability of winning the jackpot is minuscule, it is not impossible.

 

 

 

 

I've incorporated it into a fun drinking game.

 

Though its a bu99er when it happens before work.

[Gwiwer]

Wet Wet Wet here. 
 

Not the musical (sic) ensemble of that name but a description of the weather. 
 

“Enting down” is another. 
 

All those who have worked hard for today’s parades and events will be very frustrated. All those who drift into town for public drinking sessions may still do so but perhaps at a muted level. 

[DaveF]

A dry cloudy morning, only 18°C and quite pleasant but still humid.  During the night my duvet ended up on the floor but I slept soundly from just after 11 until almost 7 this morning, a welcome change.

 

The toe still feels fine in its bandage but I won't do too much walking today.  I do need to go to a shop, probably Lidl, for a few things then I'll spend a lot of time watching the golf and reading.  Some rain is forecast for this evening but the plants will still need watering.  Nothing else needs doing in the garden today for a change - and if it does it isn't getting done.

 

I went into the garden at dusk yesterday and spent a pleasant time watching the bats flying around trying to catch flying moths.  Most of the moths were not flying, they were just sitting on plants.

 

David

 

[Winslow Boy]

34 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

It takes longer (time = money), has to use quality ingredients (quality = money) and requires more work than the Chorleywood process (labour = money).

 

So, not a marketing rip-off (although I have noticed that The Bear has a very very, low threshold for “rip-off”) no special ingredients either.

 

Problem is, as Britain has become so reliant on UPF (up to 67% of daily calorie intake according to some accounts) many have forgotten - if they ever knew in the first place - the time and cost involved making things from scratch with decent ingredients.

It is the Law of diminishing return I'm afraid. The further and further we get from the generation who were actually taught by there parents/school etc to actually make things from scratch, the less people there will be who know how to do it.

 

And yes that does take into account that there are more sources of information but you have to factor in that the 'food producers - other terms are available, keep making there products 'cheaper' and more appealing. Eventually of course nearly everything will be UPF's.

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Sadly Bear doesn't possess a Blender.  Saved at the last hurdle.....🤣

 

 

 

Never stopped me!

 

 

 

 

Edited July 20 by monkeysarefun

[polybear]

3 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

Never stopped me!

 

 

 

 

 

Bear has those.....

[polybear]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Problem is, as Britain has become so reliant on UPF (up to 67% of daily calorie intake according to some accounts) many have forgotten - if they ever knew in the first place - the time and cost involved making things from scratch with decent ingredients.

 

Bear would just like to mention that of the eleven items which made up Bear's din dins tea last night, only two** would be classed as UPF under iD guidelines...

 

**Ignoring the tommy sauce and yellow spready stuff on the toast.  I've even counted the Beary-made LDC cos' it (a) came out of a packet, and (b) I very much suspect that iD would declare it UPF-naughty.

 

See - there is a glimmer of hope after all.....  😁

[monkeysarefun]

9 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Bear has those.....

 

 

No worries then!

 

I've found that if your paint stirrer is covered in turps then a plunge router works as  a suitable stand-in.

 

Finding alternative uses in the kitchen  for power tools is a sure fire way of getting the purchase approval tick from the other half.

 

Edited July 20 by monkeysarefun

[Erichill16]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

7 or 8?  Antarctic??

🤣

 

 

 

BG

My best holiday of all time was a cruise to Antarctica and after a day trekking with some penguins we had a barbecue on the ship, no coats required. (And before anyone asks, no penguins were eaten) 

 

 

 

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

All those who have worked hard for today’s parades and events will be very frustrated. All those who drift into town for public drinking sessions may still do so but perhaps at a muted level

 

 

I feel that you should also spare a minutes silence for Collingwood supporters currently sitting in the pouring rain at the MCG watching as Hawthorn lead them 120 to 60 with 5 minutes left to play.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Still heading for 30C. here (23C and rising) but then the rain is predicted to turn up towards the end of the afternoon. Pollen count is through the roof but it's the sort of pollen that doesn't effect me too much.

Edited July 21 by PhilJ W

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

I feel that you should also spare a minutes silence for Collingwood supporters currently sitting in the pouring rain at the MCG watching as Hawthorn lead them 120 to 60 with 5 minutes left to play.

 

Must be like watching England play football...

 

More locally:

 

Currently dry @ 22c, with rain due at 2pm, and thundery showers to follow, temps dropping to 15c.....

 

Edited July 20 by Hroth

[PupCam]

Morning!

 

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

All this brouhaha about RMWeb and how it does/does not function (for what it’s worth, I think there are some technical problems lurking somewhere in the background) has had me thinking.

 

As the various permutations of “RMWeb not available“ seemingly happen at random, I was thinking that this would be a good way of choosing numbers for the EuroMillions lottery. The winning numbers are picked at random, and whilst the probability of winning the jackpot is minuscule, it is not impossible.

 

(Now, bear with me for a moment…j

 

Therefore, if we assign a number each of the random “RMWeb not available“ events, every time we try to access Early Risers we make a note of what sort of ”not available” event we encounter. If an event occurs twice in a row, then it would count as a single double digit number (e.g. two number 2 “not available” events = 22) and if you have already encountered that event already (say event number one), the number of that event is simply added to the the number of the next “RMWeb not available” event to creat a two digit number.

 

By the end of a usual day spent accessing RMWeb, and Early Risers in particular, you should have enough randomly generated numbers to complete your EuroMillions entry form.

 

And who knows, you might even win something

 

I think you need to get out more ... 🤣

 

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

That’s a poor excuse Bear. I mean that’s really a p***-poor excuse. Such things are very inexpensive and very useful.

 

Are you afraid you can’t cut it in the kitchen even with a made-for-bear recipe?. C’mon, it’s hardly in the same league as capturing a Huntsman Spider, is it?

 

I guess The Bear isn’t ready to join the grown-ups yet…

 

 

Or he could just use an old fashioned hand implement to achieve the same result.    Come on @polybear put your back into it (or perhaps in this case it should be put your paw into it)

 

ION

 

Up and out early this morning to run the RD over to the local motorcycles show.   Some nice, unusual bikes on display particularly in the two halls (I'll post some more photos on the old bikes thread later for anyone that's interested).    Here's the RD in the middle of the row of 70's/early 80's Yamahas from an FS1E up to a 500

 

 

I don't know who the bloke is eyeing up the RD.   I hope he doesn't run off with it!    

 

Actually I think that's unlikely as I believe it was him that was collecting a new bike there this morning.  As I left  I overhead something along the lines of "You go down to this sub-menu and then you can pair your phone with it" as he and a member of staff were pressing various buttons on a very shiny, sleek, new projectile.

 

We will shortly be attending the birthday celebrations  for one of the Junior Junior Puppers.    Rumour has it there is a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream icing and a London Underground roundel with the name of the small boy on.  Actually, it's more than a rumour - we've only just finished making it at the 11th hour.   Talk about taking it to the wire!

 

Right, must engage the anti- Bear & Hippo devices immediately.

 

TTFNQ

 

 

[PhilJ W]

9 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

For me, the killer isn't temperature in warm climes but humidity. A dry temp of 35C really isn't that bad, 25C with 100% humidity is much worse to me. Thr challenging thing about acclimatising in SE Asia isn't temperature,  it is the humidity which is just as constant as the temperature.  Which is when you appreciate just what a difference a light breeze makes.

It's the humidity that makes all the difference. The first time I visited Malta the temperature was in the mid 30's every day but it was comfortable because of the low humidity. Geography plays its part as with the prevailing westerly winds the Atlas mountains catch a lot of the moisture.